Linking attachments to forms that are being updated outside of access

[an1bone]

Hello,

I need to add attachments (pdfs, Word documents, JPEGs) that will automatically update to my form when revisions are made to them in their outside folders (not within Access). For example, I have op sketches that are being edited outside of Access and saved under the same name, so I need to make sure that these newly edited documents are automatically being linked and uploaded to my Access form to see. These attachments were added to a field in one of my tables, and I can pull it up in the form. My problem is that the attachments that I pull up are not the currect version; they are the original version that I added into the table. I tried making the Default Picture Type as "Linked" instead of "Embedded", but this isn't working. What can I do so that the current revisions are being shown without having to edit each attachment within the table?



Thank you!

[June7]

Can't. The image files would have to be replaced in the attachment. For Word, open the file from the attachment field and edit the document then close it. Otherwise, if you edit an external Word document then have to replace the attachment.

'Default Picture Type' won't work with PDF and Word files.

Alternative is to not embed files in attachment field. Just save path and file name into text field.

Embedding files can quickly use up Access 2GB size limit, especially if they are large files.

[Micron]

If you are storing files in a table, I am quite certain there is no way to have them reflect changes to the original. This would violate the whole concept of file storage if it could. What you should be doing is storing the path in a table and calling up the file when needed. If you are trying to show data from this file in a form, the process needs to 'refresh' that data first, but I doubt that is what you are doing if you're also dealing with non-data files such as images. You can use the path in the hyperlink function (which does have limitations) or using the SHELL or SHELLEXECUTE functions, which are more powerful but more difficult to work with.